Considerable efforts by armament manufacturers throughout the world have been devoted to developing automated equipment for handling ammunition for mobile gun systems. This is particularly so in the case of large caliber cannons carried by armored vehicles, such as tanks and self-propelled howitzers. Presently the tasks of withdrawing rounds from magazine storage and loading them into the breech of a tank cannon are almost universally performed manually. A gunloader is thus an essential member of military tank crew.
Modern tank designs are calling for increased ammunition storage capacity to enhance fighting capacity without increasing rearming frequency. Thus, ammunition magazines are being located in the turret bustle, as well as the tank hull. Also, some types of large caliber tank ammunition are comprised of separate modules, a projectile and a propellant unit, which are handled and stored separately and then united preparatory to being fired off by the tank cannon. These factors dramatically increase the manual effort required of a gun loader in handling relatively heavy and bulky ammunition modules pursuant to transferring them between variously situated ammunition storage magazines preparatory to loading the tank cannon. To accommodate these activities, considerable space must be allotted to the gun loader within the tank turret and turret basket. Adequate headroom should be provided so the gunloader can work standing up. Unfortunately, this increases the vertical profile of the tank and thus its target size. The turret must therefore be heavily armored to maximize tank and crew survivability against enemy fire. Of course, heavy armor plating adds tremendously to the weight of a tank, which then calls for a larger engine and drive train.
The factors of high profile and the consequences thereof, the elimination of a gun loader and the consequent space savings, and the prospect of higher firing rates have been the primary motivations for mechanizing the handling of tank ammunition. Of the numerous automated ammunition handling systems seen in the prior art, most are highly complex, extraordinarily space-consuming, difficult to maintain and susceptible to frequent malfunction.